


A Moment Out of Time

by Morgyn Leri (morgynleri)



Category: Torchwood
Genre: GFY, Non-Linear Narrative, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-20
Updated: 2010-09-20
Packaged: 2017-10-12 01:32:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/119316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morgynleri/pseuds/Morgyn%20Leri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Trade a lifetime for the work of a dozen, never worried about the price. It's all she has, and all for something to be locked away until the rest of the world catches up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Moment Out of Time

Nothing more than a flat, matte box. Black, eating up the light as it sat on his desk. Her work, something worth a lifetime of living.

Jack frowned, reaching out to touch it again, reaching out a tendril of thought as well.

Nothing.

"Sir?" Ianto raised an eyebrow, nodding at the box.

"She said it was worth her life. A dozen lifetimes to figure it out, and she traded one life for all that in the blink of an eye." Jack shook his head, pushing away from his desk. He hadn't understood what Melina was doing when he met her, and he still didn't. "Lock it in the vault for now."

~ ~~ ~

"Doctor Melina Ainsworth, NASA." The young woman held out her hand, a small smile on her face. "And you...?"

"Captain Jack Harkness, Torchwood." Jack shook her hand, returning her smile with a flirtatious one of his own that only earned him an arched eyebrow.

"Torchwood?" Melina let out a soft snort of laughter. "Aren't you a bit far from home?"

"Not too far." Jack shrugged.

"Right. Whatever you say." Melina shook her head, reaching up with one hand to tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "What is Torchwood's interest in a little science convention like this? There's nothing alien about it."

"What makes you think Torchwood's into aliens?"

"Well, perhaps the fact that I've friends in odd places." Melina shrugged. "It's just strange to find someone here whose interest isn't neccessarily the presentations being given." She looked sideways at him, her eyebrow arching upwards once more. "Or am I mistaken, Captain Harkness?" She stressed the formal address slightly.

"The presenters are as interesting as their material, Doctor Ainsworth." Jack shoved his hands into his pockets, shrugging, his expression bland for a brief second.

"Oh really now?" Melina fought to keep a straight face, nodding a greeting to one of the other scientists milling around the ballroom. "I find that... far too easy to believe. Damnit, Jack, I was trying to pretend I'm a good girl, all proper and straight-laced." She shook her head, fighting the urge to run a hand through her hair, and ruin the careful styling.

"And I thought you were a fun girl, Melina." Jack grinned, tilting his head towards the doors nearby. "Talk outside?"

"Not if you're after what I think you're after, Jack." Melina moved away from the column, towards the dance floor. "I'm not letting you have it."

"It's killing you, Mel." Jack followed her, grabbing her hand as she reached the dance floor.

"You think I don't know that?" Melina didn't turn, holding very still. "I don't care, Jack. I could live a hundred lifetimes, a thousand, like you." She looked at him, her eyes cold. "But it would never be as good as this one, short life. Even if I never see ninety, never even see sixty. It's worth it, to me."

~ ~~ ~

"She's so young." Gwen looked down at the woman in the coffin, shaking her head.

"She is young. Just not as young as she looks." Jack studied the face for a long moment before glancing at his wrist computer. "She doesn't have it on her."

"Doesn't have what on her?"

"The reason she looks like she should be a student, not a professor." Jack frowned at body.

~ ~~ ~

"Trust me, Jack." Melina touched his jaw a moment, a soft smile touching her face. "It's worth any price to have this. Just a moment out of time. I can finish the work. Figure it out. You can have it when I'm done, if you want it. But let me have this one moment."

"It's not worth your life, Mel."

"It is. Captain." She pulled away, the ice returning to her eyes. "It's all I have."

"It's not."

"IT IS!" Melina sighed, shaking her head. "It's not your fault. It's not anyone's fault. It's just how it is. You have your Torchwood, and I have this. All it takes is a moment out of time. Forever in a blink of an eye. Just that moment. It'd take dozens of lifetimes otherwise."

~ ~~ ~

"What the hell is it, anyway?" Owen looked at the slim band resting in the box. "Looks like a wedding ring."

"That's what everyone assumed it was." Jack snapped the box shut before anyone else got a good look at the.. whatever it was. "What else did you find?"

"Nothing." Toshiko gave Jack a puzzled look. "What's so important about her?"

"Nothing. She just... was in the wrong place at the wrong time." Jack frowned, looking down at the ornate box the ring was in. It didn't make sense for her to have left nothing. Where was the work she had been so passionate about?

~ ~~ ~

"A delivery for a Captain Jack Harkness." The young woman smiled brightly at Ianto, holding tightly to the box she'd been paid to deliver. Paid well, and only to the man in the photo the woman had given her.

"One moment. Do you know who it's from?" Ianto reached for the phone, and she shrugged.

"A lady. She said only to give it to Captain Harkness. Have a picture of him and all so I know who to give this to. Don't even know what it is, she never said."

"He'll be up in a moment."

"Good. I've got a holiday planned with the money she paid for me to deliver this box. So small, too."

~ ~~ ~

 _"It's worth it, Jack. My word on it." Melina's eyes crinkled at the corners for a moment. "A work of a dozen lifetimes, a moment out of time. Worth my life to finish this. Keep it safe for me, until the rest of them are ready for it."_


End file.
